Recently, the wide spread of infectious diseases such as influenza and the expansion of a range of infection are considered as serious problems. In order to promptly solve the problems for public heath, there has been a demand for a highly precise and simple method for virus analysis. Currently, in quarantine inspection, a cleaning liquid after cleaning one's nasal cavity is analyzed. However, this inspection method has problems in sensitivity and time period for diagnosis. Further, in order to take measures against pandemic and bio terrors, viruses in the atmosphere need to be inspected constantly. In a manual inspection method conducted by a human being, such as inspecting the cleaning liquid from the nasal cavity, it is difficult to expect the automation of the virus analysis. As for the analysis of, e.g., an influenza virus in the atmosphere, there is a cultivation method for observing and analyzing colonies formed after culturing the virus adhered to a culture medium. However, this cultivation method has drawbacks in that it takes several days for the cultivation and it is difficult to automate the cultivation method. Thus, this cultivation method may not be useful when prompt analysis is required in such cases as dealing with a novel influenza, a foot-and-mouth disease virus, and the like. Additionally, there may be employed a method for detecting a virus in the atmosphere by trapping the virus in a liquid. In this method, however, due to low sensitivity of analysis in the liquid, the virus may not be precisely detected.
Under these circumstances, Non-Patent Document 1 describes a method for detecting a virus with high sensitivity in a short time period by selectively adsorbing a fluorescent antibody in a certain virus and then measuring fluorescence intensity. In the method of Non-Patent Document 1, however, a mucous membrane or saliva is analyzed as a sample and the analysis is not conducted automatically on a real time basis. Further, in the above method of Non-Patent Document 1, presence or absence of a virus is determined by detecting a variation difference in the fluorescence intensity, not by an absolute value of the fluorescence intensity.
Non-Patent Document 1: Hasegawa Makoto, “Development of High Sensitivity Pathogenic Organism Detection Method for Airport Quarantine and against Bio Terror,” [online], Oct. 8, 2008, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, [Searched on Jul. 6, 2010], Internet <URL: http://www.nedo.go.jp/informations/press201008—1/201008—1.html>